Last year it seemed the whole fleet of North Huron trucks packed with NH employees finally got around to fixing the safety barrier across from the Legion in Wingham. These barriers are meant to prevent vehicles from going down the bank into the Maitland river in case of an accident. Normally these barriers consist of three strands of cable along with a series of posts and anchor posts.
You may be wondering how well town staff did on that long overdue maintenance. You may be asking yourself, did they replace all the rotten posts with new ones, did they put three strands of cable on, and did they anchor the ends properly. The answer to all those questions is NO!
Current director of public works Jeff Molenhuis should offer his immediate resignation for the truly pathetic workmanship/maintenance he approved. None of the posts have been replaced, and the single strand of cable simply can not be attached to these rotten stumps. If/When a vehicle goes over the bank, there is a very good chance that the one strand of cable will act as a decapitator line, or the vehicle will simply slip under it and plunge into the river.
The most obvious defect is one end of the safety cable is secured to a hydro pole. That’s right, the anchor post is a hydro pole. So if you hit the safety barrier and go over the bank there is a good chance the hydro pole could be severed exacerbating the situation.